Fania presents the all new Anthology series. A sought-after collection of the most significant songs from the greatest artists on the Fania roster. Completely remastered from the ¼ tapes, these tracks have a fuller and more dynamic sound. The collection contains 12 pages of liner notes in English and Spanish housed in an attractive digipack design. A must for all fans and collectors.

If you are already familiar with the magic of La Sonora Ponceña, then you know what this compilation has in store for you: over the span of 27 tracks, we have distilled the very essence of one of the jazziest, funkiest and most elegant orchestras ever to grace the landscape of Afro-Caribbean music. If, on the other hand, you are mostly unfamiliar with La Ponceña's brand of Puerto Rican salsa, and decided to purchase this set to see what the band is all about, then you are in for an unforgettable treat - a life changing experience. Other salsa stars managed to capture the imagination of the mainstream: Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Héctor Lavoe and Rubén Blades are the first that come to mind. By contrast, La Ponceña has remained a bit of a hidden secret among Latin music aficionados. Not the band itself, because La Ponceña has been enjoying massive dance hits since 1968, but rather the fact that this unpretentious orchestra is responsible for a series of timeless albums that go beyond the conventions of tropical music. La Ponceña's discography is deep and transcendental. Sociopolitically alert and sonically experimental. Eager to absorb other influences and stubbornly sophisticated. No matter how much acclaim it continues to receive by salsa dancers and the specialized press, La Ponceña is still, at its core, an underrated band. The beginning was certainly unassuming. In 1944, Enrique 'Quique' Lucca Caraballo formed a little band in the city of Ponce, in the Southern coast of Puerto Rico. Its name was Orquesta Internacional, and it performed in local functions and parties without achieving the kind of artistic pedigree that Don Quique was hoping for. Ten years later, it was renamed La Sonora Ponceña, its sound enhanced, devoted to the zesty dance numbers of Cuban artists like Arsenio Rodríguez and La Sonora Matancera. The band would probably have remained anonymous, if it wasn't for the leader's son, Enrique Arsenio. Born in 1946 and nicknamed 'Papo,' he was a child prodigy who grew up listening to his father's orchestra and developed an uncanny ability to perform the piano. Like many salsa musicians, Papo was equally enamored with the Afro-Cuban music of the Caribbean and the jazz soundscapes of performers like Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans. This sweet dichotomy would define La Ponceña's excellence for decades to come. By the time the orchestra released its debut album on the label Inca Records in 1968, Papo was La Ponceña's musical director and arranger. Inca would become part of the Fania conglomerate, and the band enjoyed international distribution during the New York salsa explosion of the '70s. The timing couldn't have been more auspicious, and Papo eventually replaced Larry Harlow as the official piano player with mega-orchestra Fania All Stars. His piano solos - velvety, complex, endlessly fascinating - would remain at the core of La Ponceña's identity. But the Luccas were also incredibly astute when it came to enlisting lead vocalists. Tito Gómez, Luigi Texidor, Miguelito Ortiz and Yolanda Rivera are a few of the genre-defining soneros than can be heard on this compilation. La Ponceña's trajectory can be divided into three distinct stages. The first one spans the years from 1968 to 1975. The band's early albums favor a tough, rugged sound. Compared to the other seminal groups of the time, Lucca's arrangements lack the exuberance of Willie Colón's trombone lineup, or the lush dynamics of Eddie Palmieri's La Perfecta. They are almost austere, implacable in their rhythmic intensity, using the sound of trumpets to evoke the bravado of an old fashioned Hollywood epic. The early hits ("Hachero Pa'Un Palo," "Fuego En El 23") are salsified renditions of Arsenio Rodríguez standards. Recorded in 1971, "Acere Ko" is a crisp, airy version of a joyful rumbón written by Patato and Totico. And the opening track off the now classic Desde Puerto Rico A Nueva York LP, "Prende El Fogón" solidifies the quintessential Sonora Ponceña sound: the arrangement glides like a beautiful couple skating on ice. An inspired Tito Gómez introduces Papo's latest concoction, piano al horno ("baked piano") and the contrast between the bandleader's refined solo and the ensemble's ferocious rhythm section is memorable. The explosion that follows, all staccato cowbell punch and spiraling trumpet riffs, has been sending salsa dancers into a frenzy for decades. The best was still to come. Between 1976 and 1979, La Ponceña released five albums of a new tropical style that can be best summed up as "progressive salsa." Lucca was clearly aware of the progressive rock albums that were coming out of England at the time, and there are touches of psychedelia, space-rock, electronic keyboards and sound effects on the new works. The musty Cuban bolero "Soy Tan Feliz" becomes a jazz-rock fusion gem thanks to Papo's electronic piano, and La Ponceña discovers Brazilian music by turning Edu Lobo's bossa nova tune "Boranda" into a seven minute-long epic, and splitting up "Bomba Carambomba" right in the middle with a samba beat ("ahora es bossa nova para variar un poquito," enthuses Texidor.) Two years later, Tito Gómez's gritty delivery on "Soy Moreno" is enriched with a solo that sounds straight out of Chick Corea's Return To Forever records. It was Conquista Musical in 1976 that ushered the new era with a more polished sheen, courtesy of co-producer Louie Ramírez. The piano solos are more extensive, fully developed, and the opening "Ñáñara Caí" blends a placid melody with a hilarious narrative describing a world that's gone upside down - we even hear about Fania co-founder Johnny Pacheco being run over by a cow. Conquista left space for a mega-hit, the hummable "El Pío Pío," an idyllic view of life in the Puerto Rican countryside and Papo's stylized take on what a pop single should sound like. A strategy that he would rep